Venezuela: The bill on NGOs would further narrow civic space, says the Independent Mission

The Independent international fact-finding mission* on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela today expressed its deep concern about the possible implications of the draft “Law on supervision, regularization, performance and financing of non-governmental and related organizations”, adopted in first reading by the National Assembly on January 24.

For the Mission, the new regulation imposes additional requirements for the operation and creation of non-governmental organizations and other non-profit entities, non-compliance with which is subject to strong sanctions, including its ex officio dissolution.

“If sanctioned, the law on NGOs could represent a point of no return in the closure of the civic and democratic space in Venezuela,” warned Marta Valiñas, president of the UN Investigation Mission in a statement released on Monday.

Francisco Cox, an expert from the Mission, affirmed that “the regulation would impose on NGOs, existing and in the process of formation, a set of formal requirements so onerous that it would grant the State quasi-permanent power to suppress them.”

And he added: “The law is clearly aimed at limiting, not facilitating, the exercise of the right of association.”

Limitations on human rights NGOs

The Mission noted that NGOs dedicated to promoting human rights “face progressively more limitations to their functioning, both legal and operational, including in the key aspect of financing.”

And he adds that, without access to international cooperation funds, many of these organizations will inevitably disappear.

In a preliminary analysis of the Mission, several provisions of the bill would affect the rights to freedom of association and expressionincluded in articles 52 and 57 of the Constitution and in the international human rights norms that bind Venezuela.

One of the aspects of the project that raises the most concerns are the powers that it confers on the National Executive, especially the power to implement control mechanisms that allow for the supervision and sanction of “deviations by subjects that compromise national sovereignty” (article 13).

“This exposes organizations to permanent surveillance, even through possible police or intelligence control,” affirms the Mission, which estimates that, in this way, organizations that resort to international human rights bodies or that receive foreign financing could be exposed to sanctions for allegedly compromising national sovereignty.

Prohibition of political activities

Another aspect that causes concern is the lack of precision in the prohibition of carrying out “political activities” or that “attempt against national stability and the institutions of the Republic”, included in article 15 of the project.

“A broad interpretation of the concept” political activities “, which is not clearly defined in the law, allows subsuming all kinds of activities of documentation, analysis and dissemination of information on government policies and practices, including in the field of human rights,” he says. The mission.

And he adds that “this prohibition It can especially compromise NGOs dedicated to the control of public and democratic spacewhich is particularly significant for future elections”.

In the Mission’s analysis, the bill is part of a broader pattern of restrictions on civic space, through threats, attacks, and arbitrary detentions against human rights defenders, trade unionists, and journalists, as well as limitations on the free functioning of independent organizations and media.

*As of September 2019, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations established the Independent International Investigation Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (MIIV) through resolution 42/25, to investigate the gross violations of human rights committed since 2014. Through its resolutions 45/20 and 51/29 , the Human Rights Council extended the mandate of the MIIV for two more years, until September 2024.

The Mission will present an oral report to the Human Rights Council in March 2023 with an update on its investigations, and will present its report in September 2023 in an interactive dialogue session of the Council.